THE FRONT ROW WITH BRUCE BOURQUIN: Friday, November 7, 2014

One torn ACL injury is bad enough. Two - one to each sibling - is brutal.

But when you have three siblings born in Coeur d'Alene and who grew up in Hayden who graduated from Coeur d'Alene High who each tore an anterior cruciate ligament, all within a little more than a two-year period, well, that's just flat-out unlucky, not to mention pretty painful.

CONNOR WILLIAMS, a 22-year-old senior wide receiver who plays for Division III school Whitworth University in Spokane, tore his ACL in his right knee in January of 2013 during his junior year.

He had his surgery on Feb. 13, 2013, the day before Valentine's Day, a big-time bummer for Connor and his girlfriend since high school, Rachel Crawford, a former soccer player at North Idaho College, who recently graduated from Western Oregon.

Connor, who also played basketball at Coeur d'Alene High, was just playing some pickup basketball with some friends, driving for a simple layup, trying to stay in shape, when it happened. Then, a six-month recovery followed.

"Honestly it's just unlucky injuries and some of them were just non-contact injuries," Connor said of his family's knee injuries. "It could've happened to anybody, but we were strong enough to overcome them. I looked at it as a minor setback, but a major comeback."

Brian Scherr, a physical therapist in Liberty Lake, worked with all three siblings. Connor is a health science major, his girlfriend Rachel majored in nursing, and Connor works part-time as a physical therapy technician at Orthopedic Physical Therapy Institute in Coeur d'Alene.

"He pushed us hard and did a great job getting us ready to play," Connor said. "It's been awesome being able to come back and perform well during my senior year. I've enjoyed my time at Whitworth. I actually got involved in the physical therapy tent after my surgery, so it really got me into it, seeing how recovery and rehab goes. Once you know it firsthand, it gives you a good experience as well as making you relatable to patients. So it's been kind of a weird blessing after going through something through this, but it opens your eyes to a career."

As Whitworth's receiving leader with 807 yards and eight touchdowns, Connor has thrived in a new spread offense led by new head coach Rod Sandberg. The Pirates are tied for second at 4-2 in the Northwest Conference (6-3 overall), and are in playoff contention.

COINCIDENTALLY, Valentine's Day was the 18th birthday of Connor's now-19-year-old younger sister, Carli, who tore her left ACL in August of 2012, while playing soccer for Coeur d'Alene. She also tore the ACL in her left knee during her junior year and the ACL in her right during her sophomore season, both after she jumped and landed while playing basketball.

"It was during our second or third soccer game of the season," Carli said of her senior year. "This one, I was wearing my brace and everything. A girl and I went for a ball, I got tackled a little bit and she landed on my leg and it made it go the wrong direction."

As a high school sophomore, Carli competed in the 800-meter run in the state 5A track and field championships and in various basketball games, plus cross country her junior year, before her injury forced her out of the second half of basketball season and all of track season. Connor and Cole helped her with her recovery as well.

"It was really hard to have to watch my team practice and play without me," Carli said. "But it was also really hard because I'd work so hard for six months, get released, play for a little bit and it would happen again. My family and friends' support was amazing, that really helped."

ANOTHER BLOW to the family came in early October, when the youngest brother, Cole Williams, a 6-foot-2, 190-pound, 17-year-old senior receiver, safety and punter, tore his ACL in his left knee playing football on Oct. 3 at Vikings Stadium against Hermiston, Ore. He had his surgery on Monday.

Tonight, Coeur d'Alene plays at Rocky Mountain High in Meridian in the quarterfinals of the state 5A football playoffs, but Cole, who is moving on a leg machine, will not be able to make it.

"I was catching a pass and I came down on it," Cole said. "The best-case scenario is I'll have lateral movement in six months (by May). It's weird, strange how it happened."

Cole is currently recovering, and will be out between six to 10 months. He also played basketball and tennis. Cole is hoping to play college football somewhere within the region. Idaho, Montana State and Carroll College are among the schools that have shown interest.

CARLI IS a sophomore majoring in pre-nursing at Washington State, where she plans to walk on to the women's track and field team. The siblings' grandparents, Bob and Betty Lusk, both attended WSU and their mother, Linda, competed in crew at the University of Washington.

"It's been extremely painful and a hard recovery," Linda said of Cole. "He's been on a leg machine. He was at the top of his game. It's an incredible attribute to them to never stop, never say, 'Why me?'"

This weekend, Carli is helping take care of Cole while their parents, Rich and Linda Williams, travel to Tacoma to watch Connor play in his final regular-season game for Whitworth at 1 p.m. on Saturday at Pacific Lutheran University. For Carli, her injuries had a little to do with her choice of major, but another moment convinced her.

"Our family lost one of my family members to brain cancer and kind of helping him and being with him during his rehab, it pushed me toward that career," Carli said.

Jedidiah Lusk, the siblings' cousin, died at age 9 during Carli's sophomore year of high school, on Jan. 3, 2011, in Cromberg, Calif., of a Glioblastoma multiforme brain tumor. According to webmd.com, it is the most common malignant primary brain tumor and arises from glial cells, which are cells that form the tissue that surrounds and protects other nerve cells found within the brain and spinal cord.

Carli said the three siblings are the only ones in her family that has torn their ACLs, saying it's been "pretty random."

"My whole family have been Coug fans my whole life," Carli said. "It was close to home and since my ACL surgeries, at first I wasn't planning on playing any sports, so I thought going to a big school would be a perfect college experience. I set a lot of goals throughout all my surgeries. After I tore my ACL my senior year, I thought 'Maybe I'm not supposed to play sports, go to college work on my academics. So I set goals in terms of running triathlons and half-marathons with my mom (Linda) and sports I can do the rest of my life."

That changed once she got to WSU.

"This year, maybe I got a little bored last year," she said. "I got used to playing sports and going through rehab, so I decided I'm going to try to run track."

For Carli, the knees are doing well and she is looking forward to official team practices under Washington State's new Director of Cross Country and Track and Field, Wayne Phipps, who spent the past 13 seasons coaching at the University of Idaho.

So ACL, Schm-ACL. These three Williams siblings, including the currently rehabbing Cole, are fighting through and excelling.

Bruce Bourquin is a sports writer at The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2013 or via e-mail at [email protected]